China at work and at play

We’re in Irkutsk Siberia and in a few hours we board a train that will whisk us to Moscow more than 5200 kilometres to the west. Whisk is probably the wrong word—the train ride will take four days.

It started snowing earlier today, but the flakes have only recently started sticking to the ground. I wonder how blanketed it will be when we head to the train at 2:30am.

Selling persimmon cakes

Road works

Making pottery

Chasing scorpions

Cooking

Selling pomegranate juice

Obviously I won’t be posting during the journey. Given that I’m almost always behind on reporting my travels, I thought I’d share some pics from our recent days in China—the fourth time we have visited this vast country.

There are so many people in China that the country never sleeps. Everywhere you look, people are working, playing or eating, and I caught one gal sleeping.

So I thought you might enjoy some photos from our whirlwind week in China. The pics are from Shanghai, Xian and Beijing.

Shanghai’s main shopping street

Street sweeping

Cleaning a pond

Posing

Selling fruit

Feeding fish

Selling souvenirs

A few comments about a couple of pics. The dancer, the saxophonist, the child posing and the ribbon twirler are all from Jingshan Park in Beijing. The road works are in Shanghai and we had one of our nicest meals in a hole-in-the-wall on that street. I’ll post about food soon.

The scorpions were for sale as food—a delicacy. Some were live and others cooked. We didn’t try any of them. The fellow cooking at night had an enormous queue of people waiting outside for the savoury buns he was making. The table tennis player was fierce, as you might tell from his stance.

I could have listened to the guitar player all night. He played well and had a beautiful singing voice—never mind that we didn’t understand a single word.

I was offered a large black scorpion as part of a starter, during a restaurant meal in Beijing. I couldn’t face the prospect of putting the thing in my mouth, even though I am sure it upset the host. I had enough problems later, chewing on duck’s feet!
Great photos, Peggy. They conjure up a real feel of the vibrancy of China.
Best wishes, Pete.

I am excited to hear about your trip, Peggy. Last time I think I read about the train ride was Paul Theroux.
I think I’ll pass on scorpion revenge. 🙂 I once caught one in Liberia that was fist size with a stinger the size of my thumb. Ugly! I turned it loose— a long ways off from my house. –Curt

Brings back great memories of China in October – crisp, clear fall days with lots of people out and about all over the country. Hope your weather, too, has been smog-free and temperate. I loved seeing all your candid street shots.

When I was young I found it difficult to comprehend things I had never seen. I have been overseas and I have read your posts. But even so I am continually overcome by how much everyone is just like me. As Zorba said, “wife, children everything.”